Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Chaotic Scenes Of People Stuck Outside Kabul Airport; U.S. Government Mobilizes Commercial Airliners To Assist In Evacuations; Some Afghan Working At Embassies Still Strapped In Kabul; Biden Addresses Nation On Afghanistan Evacuations. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 22, 2021 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The Biden administration has been trying to get Regeneron's drugs to parts of the country that are seeing COVID-19 surges. The federal government has spent billions on the drug, for patients it's free.
The state of Florida set up this clinic but it would have better if the patients hadn't gotten COVID in the first place. Perhaps no one knows that better than Toma Dean. That's her in that photo. She was not vaccinated, caught COVID-19, received the antibody treatment and thankfully is recovering. This is her advice.
TOMA DEAN, COVID-19 PATIENT: Get vaccinated. It may not be the first thing that you want to do, but it's better than the end result.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in New York. We're standing by for President Biden. He will address the nation at any moment now on his administration's urgent evacuation efforts in Afghanistan.
CNN has learned that the Department of Defense is mobilizing several commercial airlines, including Delta, United and American to assist in the evacuation. We're also learning that about 8,000 people were flown out from Kabul, Afghanistan, in the last 24 hours, but a source tells CNN that roughly 20,000 people still remain at the airport all desperately seeking a way out from the Taliban-held country.
A source tells CNN conditions at the airport got worse today. The entry gates were for the most part closed and families were being split up and sent to different countries in the chaos. That's according to the latest reporting we're getting on the ground now.
I'm joined now by Sam Kiley on the phone. He's live at the airport in Kabul. Arlette Saenz is at the White House. Also with us, CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood.
Sam, let me start with you first on the phone with us. It's been a week since the Taliban took Kabul. What are you seeing and is the situation any less chaotic at the airport? What can you tell us?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, Jim, I've only been able to see the airport itself, not what is going on beyond it. But clearly the reports of the 2,000 people pressed up against its walls possibly lower than in the past because there are so many thousands inside the airport itself. I'm not sure exactly what the figures are at the moment because they change constantly.
But it's sort of 12,000 -- 8,000 or more at any one time. There are aircraft taking off on a regular basis. We have also seen nonmilitary aircraft they're coming and going. It's not clear whether or not they're evacuating civilians. But very large numbers of civilians are being evacuated in long queues. But mostly on to C-17s from Qatar, from the United States and other countries, from Hungary indeed.
They're going off to places as far flung as Georgia, Ramstein, the U.S. base in Germany, Qatar itself and the United Arab Emirates. So a huge international effort going into this. But many, many more thousands, of course, stuck outside the gates.
And Jim, the real issue here at the moment is also fear of an attack by the so-called Islamic State or Daesh as it's known here by its acronym. This is a militant group far more extreme, even than the Taliban. Indeed the Taliban have a record of killing them very aggressively and fighting this movement to try and snuff it out as an opposition to the militant brand, if you look, and the United States forces have started to use what they're alternative routes.
These are relatively were the basically secret routes that they're using in order -- and methods in order to bring in refugees or other evacuees who are trapped in areas that means that they can't get through. But also clearly means that you can't run military operations into the city in order to try to evacuate people because of the risk of attacks from these militant groups.
And that is something that (INAUDIBLE) -- there is occasionally live fire over the airport. Quite possibly people, Taliban or others using live ammunition in the air to try to disperse crowds but possibly also a method of intimidation. There is very high (INAUDIBLE).
ACOSTA: All right, Sam, your line is breaking up just a little bit.
Let me bring in Arlette Saenz over at the White House while we make sure we have Sam's line stabilized there.
Arlette, this was a big development today. Commercial airlines now helping with the evacuation effort. What went on behind the scenes to make that happen? And I'm guessing at this point that the White House has given these airlines assurances that they can fly in this equipment and be OK and be safe getting these people out.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, this is just one part element of the administration's plans to try to get as many people out of Afghanistan as possible.
[16:05:03]
And so what we learned today is that the Pentagon is mobilizing commercial airliners to try to help with some of the transport of these evacuees. This is all being done under something called the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. And that's a program that has only been used two other times in its history. Once during "Operation Desert Shield/Storm" and again during "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Now these airliners, these commercial airliners, there will be 18 of them across five commercial airlines. They will not be flying into the airport in Kabul. Instead, they will be transporting evacuees who have already made it to a third-party site or other base as they are traveling on to further locations.
But this all comes as the administration is trying to alleviate some of those bottlenecks that might be in place due to the large amount of evacuees who have been leaving the country and as they are focusing their efforts to get more and more people out. As you mentioned, a bit ago, just over the course of the past day, a White House official says that they have evacuated 7800 personnel from Afghanistan.
It's unclear exactly how many of those are Americans, how many of those are the SIV applicants and how many others are just Afghans who might be vulnerable that they're trying to get out of the country. Half of that group was flown out on U.S. military planes. The other half was flown out through these coalition flights which could be with other countries, they could be some chartered commercial flights but right now this administration really is trying to get as many people as they possibly can out of danger.
You'd heard Sam talking about the establishment of those alternative routes, other ways of trying to get people to the airport in order to have them leave the country as there are those threats posed by ISIS-, potentially outside the airport. We will see whether the president offers any further update on the counterterrorism efforts related to that and also how many Americans and Afghans they are still trying to get out of the country as that security situation on the ground is just constantly evolving.
ACOSTA: Yes, Arlette, there seems to be -- and Kylie, there seems to be a disconnect between what the administration is saying and it almost sounds like they're offering up these rosy assessments of how they're able to get people out. Yes, the numbers are starting to sound impressive. That is all well and good. And that may well end up being something that they can look to as an accomplishment in all of this.
But we just talked to a veteran -- a military veteran in the last hour, Kylie, who was saying, you know, they are trying to work with other military veterans and coordinating evacuation efforts trying to get people, Americans, Afghan allies out of Kabul to the airport so they can be evacuated out of the country. And they are describing what sounds like a logistical nightmare on the ground. A nightmare in terms of just getting to the airport. We know we've been hearing this over the last several days. That conflicts somewhat with how the administration is presenting things.
Let me ask you, Kylie. A source telling CNN hundreds of Afghan staffers for the U.S. embassy are still trapped and feel like they've been, quote, "screwed over." That is the reporting we're hearing right now.
What are you hearing on your end, Kylie, in terms of these efforts and do these efforts, I guess, and how they're being described match with what's happening on the ground?
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so initially, the U.S. diplomats and U.S. contractors were the first ones that the Biden administration got out of the country quickly. They were the folks on those helicopters that we saw leaving the embassy and got on flights then out of the country. But the U.S. embassy in Kabul also employs a very large number of Afghan citizens.
There are more Afghans that work at that embassy than there are Americans which I think a lot of people don't know. Those Afghans are required for the embassy to work. Right? For them to be able to do their work, for them to be able to continue their work. They know U.S. diplomats incredibly well. They have very good relationships with them. But they have largely not gotten out of the country.
There's a growing sense of anger and frustration, both among U.S. diplomats who know these Afghans well and Afghans themselves who are, you know, still on the ground there, still not knowing what to do because they have been told, at certain points, last week I reported, they were told by the U.S. embassy to head to the airport.
But then I spoke with one who went to the airport with his entire family, four children, two of them under the age of 5 years old, found himself in incredibly unsafe situation. Had to head home. Said he wasn't going to go back to the airport because there was no way that he would want to put himself and his family in that situation again.
So there's a lot of frustration about these Afghans who the United States has relied on to do their work in Afghanistan, not getting out of the country. And some other folks who have showed up at the airport and, you know, showed their documentation, have gotten out.
[16:10:01]
So I do think it's important to note that these are the people who really feel like they are being left behind by the United States. Now the State Department says that they're going to work on ways to get them securely to the airport. We don't really know exactly what that looks like because as far as we know right now, there's no U.S. administration, Biden administration effort to get those folks from their homes in Kabul to the airport right now.
And so that is something that we will continue to watch, but it's an incredibly noteworthy point of frustration for these diplomats and for these Afghans.
ACOSTA: Yes, it has to be incredibly frustrating. We should note to our viewers right now if you're just tuning in, President Biden is scheduled to address the nation on this situation in Afghanistan. Those preparations, those evacuations that are under way right now. The effort that is under way to try to get more of these Americans out who are still trapped in Afghanistan, Afghan allies and partners who are trying to get out of the country.
And so we're, of course, following that from all sides as we wait for the president to get in front of the cameras and address the country on the latest situation in Afghanistan. But in the meantime, I want to go to somebody who knows the country so well. That is CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.
Peter, as you know, Biden's National Security adviser says there's already an acute ISIS threat in Afghanistan. I mean, on top of everything else we're now having to deal with these concerns about ISIS. It sounds as though this is a very precarious, dangerous situation that is just one incident away from tipping over the edge and becoming just an awful mess.
What can you tell us about this concern about ISIS and the relationship with al Qaeda and what that means for our forces on the ground there.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the ISIS group in Afghanistan is known as ISIS- Khorasan or ISIS-K. Khorasan is sort of an ancient name for the Afghan region. And ISIS- Khorasan is actually fighting the Taliban or has fought the Taliban on multiple occasions. And often these are people who were in the Taliban who kind of slapped on the ISIS patch and they are the biggest, baddest guys on the block.
They have unfortunately been able to attack almost at will in Kabul. They particularly attack the Shia Hazara kind of minority, which makes up about 15 percent of population. We've seen them, you know, attack mosques, schools. You know, they have no compunction about, you know, killing multiple civilians. So the fact that the Biden administration is concerned about ISIS in Afghanistan is a very reasonable concern.
And the estimates that I've seen, and the number of fighters in ISIS, kind of there in Afghanistan, vary between 1,000 and 2,000 on the ground. But certainly they are able to attack in Kabul. They have in the past. They are at odds with the Taliban. Their relationship with al Qaeda in Afghanistan is an interesting question. They've certainly split from al Qaeda central. So -- but they're also -- by the way, Jim, there're probably 20 jihadi terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials estimate there are 10,000 foreign fighters in the country already. So it's, you know, it's a mess.
ACOSTA: And that gets to the -- I mean, to some of the arguments being made by the Biden administration as to why now is the time to go because it is such a volatile mix that potentially is going to get more so.
All right, Arlette, Kylie and Peter, thanks so much for standing by. Please continue to stand by if you can because we are waiting on President Biden's address on Afghanistan. We're also tracking Tropical Storm Henri as it pummels the northeast
coast. There's also some just hellacious storm damage in Tennessee that we're following as well. Lots of breaking news, developing news that we're following throughout this afternoon, this evening. Live reports from the ground, next.
Stick with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:18:06]
ACOSTA: And if you're joining us now, there's the president to update the situation on Afghanistan and the weather across the country. Let's go straight to President Biden now as he's addressing.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After a series of meetings throughout the weekend with my National Security Team, I want to update the American people on our ongoing evacuation operation in Afghanistan.
But first, I just was briefed by the FEMA administrator who is here with me today, Miss Crisswell, about flash flooding in Waverly, Tennessee, and surrounding areas of Tennessee. I want to begin by expressing my deepest condolences for the sudden and tragic loss of life due to this flash flood. I know we've reached out to the community, and we stand ready to offer them support.
I've asked the administrator to speak to Governor Lee of Tennessee right away and we'll offer any assistance they need for this terrible moment.
Let me also say a few words what is now tropical storm, not hurricane, Henri, which made landfall at approximately 12:15 this afternoon in Rhode Island. Henri is impacting much of the northeast right now. And I want to talk about our efforts to prepare and respond to this storm. We have been closely monitoring Henri's progress and making the necessary preparations. Fortunately, it's no longer a hurricane.
It's been downgraded to a tropical storm. And we are taking it seriously, though, because the size and the storm's surge and the rainfall it's producing. It's also -- it's also impacting an area of the country that has already experienced heavy rainfall over the past several days. And while New Englanders are used to dealing with some tough weather, this storm has the potential for widespread consequences across the region with significant flooding, power outages, that could affect hundreds of thousands of people.
[16:20:06]
And so we're doing everything we can now to help those states prepare, respond and recover. I can't think of anyone better to lead this operation than Deanne Chriswell of FEMA. Before she headed up FEMA, she led the emergency response in New York City and she's one of the key federal officials leading our response to Superstorm Sandy. She knows this area very, very well and knows what's needed better than anyone.
Yesterday I talked with the administrator and each of the governors in the key states most likely to be affected. I urged them to take advantage of the assistance FEMA can offer in advance and committed to do everything we can to support their communities through the storm and afterwards. FEMA has already prepositioned resources in the region to speed our ability to respond, including food, water and life-saving communications equipment as well as generators.
In close cooperation with the electrical sector, preparations are in place to address significant power outages and resources and support that's staged at the edge of this storm to be able to move quickly in to help. Thousands of additional line crews and vegetation clearing crews from other states and from Canada are already heading toward the impacted states of New England. Ready to serve -- move in as soon as is feasible.
They'll clean up fallen trees, help local utilities repair damaged lines, and restore electrical service as fast as possible. I want to thank these crews for their commitment to helping their fellow citizens in time of need. I've already approved -- I've already approved emergency declarations for Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, which activates funds and means we can get in there and help as soon as this extreme weather is moved through.
We don't know the full extent of the storm's impact today, but we're acting to prepare for and prevent damage as much as possible, and to speed help to affected communities so they can recover as quickly as possible. I also want to encourage everyone to do their part to prepare. Follow the guidance from the local authorities. Some places have already had heavy rains and winds and dangerous storm surges.
Henri is going to continue to move across much of the northeast. So it's important to monitor it closely and be prepared in your home and your community. Make sure you have the supplies for your entire household, including necessary medications, food, water, battery powered radios in case of extended power outages. And don't forget that you may need to seek shelter while you're battling the Delta variant and COVID-19. So wear a mask and try to observe social distancing.
And everyone across the country, don't get caught by the next storm. Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated now. Protect yourself and your family against COVID-19. It's going to be a vital part of emergency preparedness this year -- for the remainder of this year.
Now let me turn to Afghanistan. I continue to make progress since I spoke to you on Friday. We have moved thousands of people each day by U.S. military aircraft and civilian charter flights. A little over 30 hours -- in a little over 30 hours this weekend we've evacuated an extraordinary number of people as I will detail in a minute. About 11,000 individuals. That number will change day-to-day as the air and ground operations in Kabul vary.
Our first priority in Kabul is getting American citizens out of the country as quickly and as safely as possible. At my direction, the State Department continues to reach out to the remaining Americans we have identified by phone, e-mail and other means to ascertain their whereabouts and their plans. We're executing a plan to move groups of these Americans to safety and to safely and effectively move them to the airport compound.
For security reasons, I'm not going to go into the detail of what these plans entail, but I will say again today that I've said before, any American who wants to get home will get home. We've also been evacuating the citizens of our NATO allies and our partners, including their diplomats, their embassy staff, who remain in Afghanistan, and to get them back to their homes as well.
And as we do this, we're also working to move our Afghan allies who stood with us side by side and other vulnerable Afghans such as women leaders and journalists out of the country.
[16:25:00]
As of this morning, we have evacuated nearly 28,000 people since August 14th on both U.S. and coalition aircraft, including civilian charters. Bringing the total number of people we've evacuated since July to approximately 33,000 persons.
In one 24-hour period this weekend, 23 U.S. military flights, including 14 C-17s, nine C-130 flights left Kabul carrying 3,900 passengers. We see no reason why this tempo will not be kept up. During the same period our military facilitated another 35 charter flights carrying an additional 4,000 evacuees to other countries that are taking them out. All together we lifted approximately 11,000 people out of Kabul in less than 36 hours.
It's an incredible operation. Let me be clear, the evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started, when we began. Would have been true if we had started a month ago or a month from now. There is no way to evacuate these many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see on television. It's just a fact.
My heart aches for those people you see. We are proving that we can move, though, thousands of people a day out of Kabul. We're bringing our citizens, NATO allies, Afghanis who have helped us in the war effort. But we have a long way to go. And a lot could still go wrong. But to move out 30,000 people in just over a week, that's a great testament to the men and women on the ground in Kabul in our armed services.
It also reflects a tireless diplomatic effort. In order to keep a steady flow of planes taking off from Kabul and maximize our evacuation capacity, we have quickly stood up an unprecedented global effort and established a series of processing stations in third countries. In short we're not flying them directly to the country. We're flying to these processing stations. We're working with more than two dozen countries across four continents.
I've secured an agreement -- we've secured agreements with -- across the Gulf, in Central Asia and in Europe including processing centers in Qatar, Germany, Kuwait, Spain and elsewhere. It allows us to sort and process these evacuees. This transit -- these transit centers provide a safe place for the SIV applicants and other vulnerable Afghanis and their families to complete their paperwork while we conduct security screenings and background checks before they continue on to their final destination in the United States or in another country.
One of our NATO allies as well. And so from Asia to Africa, from Europe to the Western hemisphere, nations are making generous offers of support to resettlement efforts. I've been in personal contact with the leaders of many countries including Qatar, Germany, Spain, Italy, the UAE and others.
They are making vital contributions. To thank them for their support and to discuss how we can continue to coordinate our efforts in Afghanistan moving forward is the reason why I continue in contact with them. And I want to again thank all of our partners for continuing to stand together.
We've also activated the first stage of what's referred to as the Civil Reserve Air Fleet to help with the onward movement of evacuees from these transit centers. Our military aircraft and others will get them to these centers but then we're going to get the Civil Reserve fleet. It's a program designed -- was designed in the wake of the Berlin airlift after World War II to use commercial aircraft to augment our airlift capacity.
It's a voluntary program for our commercial airlines and we're grateful for those airlines and the U.S. carriers that are supporting us. This effort will only use three or four planes from each of the major carriers. Vast fleets of aircraft so there should be no effect or a minimal effect on commercial air travel. And will stay in close coordination with our partners to mitigate any impact.
These Civil Reserve flights will be helping facilitate the safe movement of people from staging locations and transit centers like Qatar and Germany, to the United States or to a third country. None of them will be landing in Kabul. Now the American aircraft that are part of this will not be going to any country but the United States.
As this effort unfolds, I want to be clear about three things. One, planes taking off from Kabul are not flying directly to the United States. They are landing at U.S. military bases and transit centers around the world. Number two, at these sites where they are landing, we are conducting thorough scrutiny -- security screening for everyone who is not a U.S. citize or a lawful permanent resident. Anyone arriving in the United States will have undergone background check.
Number three, once screened and cleared, we will welcome these Afghans who helped us in the war effort over the last 20 years to their new home in the United States of America because that's who we are. That's what America is.
I've been touched by the outpouring of support that we've seen from communities, organizations across America mobilizing to support these efforts. So many of these Afghans stood bravely by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and now, United States, including veterans groups, refugee settlement agencies, religious organizations and so many others are standing with our Afghan allies. It exemplifies the best of America.
And I want to say again, just how difficult this mission is and how dangers it poses to our troops on the ground. The security environment is changing rapidly. There are civilians crowded at the airport, although we've cleared thousands of them. We know that terrorists may seek to exploit the situation and target innocent Afghans or American troops. We're maintaining the constant vigilance to monitor and disrupt threats from any source, including the likely source being ISIS, ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate referred to as ISIS-K. But we're under no illusions about the threat.
I said on Friday, ISIS-K is a sworn enemy of the Taliban and they have a history of fighting one another. But every day we have troops on the ground. These troops, innocent civilians at the airport, face the risk of attack from ISIS-K from a distance, even though we're moving back the perimeter significantly.
We're working hard and as fast as we can to get people out. That's our mission. That's our goal. And our determination to get every American citizen home and to evacuate our Afghan allies is unwavering. We continue to see not only the enormous scope and scale of the effort, we will see the individual lives that are affected.
The families that are desperate to get home to their loved ones in America. The communities of veterans who have mobilized to try to help their former interpreters get to safety. A frightened Afghans aren't sure what to do.
To state the obvious, it's heartbreaking. But all see it, we see it, we feel it, you can't look at and not feel it. Nothing about this effort is easy, but the women and men of the United States Armed Forces are acting bravely and with professionalism and with a basic human compassion. I want to offer my profound thanks to our service members on the ground in Kabul and all those at U.S. bases around the world are welcoming and caring for these evacuees and all the diplomats and civil servants who are working around the clock to rescue American citizens, the citizens of our allies, our Afghan partners, vulnerable Afghans such as women leaders and journalists.
What we're doing is extraordinary and you have to think of the - all they're doing, thanks to the people who, from all over the world, who are helping this effort. I just want to thank you and I'll keep you informed every day as we move forward and God protect our troops and our diplomats and we're serving in harm's way.
Now, I'll take a few questions. Darlene from the Associated Press.
DARLENE SUPERVILLE, ASSOCIATED PRESS WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Mr. President, thank you.
BIDEN: Yes.
SUPERVILLE: We're nine days away from the August 31st deadline. Will you extend that deadline or what is your thought process on extending the evacuation operations?
BIDEN: There's discussions going on among us and the military about extending. Our hope is we will not have to extend, but there are going to be discussions, I suspect, on how far along we are in the process.
Mario Parker, Bloomberg.
MARIO PARKER, BLOOMBERG REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. You told the G7 in Cornwall, you promised them support back in June. If they ask for a larger or a longer American presence past August 31st deadline, what will you tell them On Tuesday, sir?
BIDEN: I will tell them that we'll see what we can do. Look, we are working closely with the G7. I've spoken with most of the leaders of G7. I'll be doing a conference with them. I think Tuesday, I'm not certain, and we'll have that discussion.
[16:35:00]
But we already have helped to get out diplomats from other countries. We've already helped get out citizens from other countries and we'll continue to do that.
PARKER: And, Mr. President, it sounded like that you've extended operations into Kabul outside of the airport. Is that correct?
BIDEN: What I'm not going to do is talk about the tactical changes we're making to make sure we maintain as much security as we can. We have constantly, how can I say it, increased rational access to the airport, where more folk can get there more safely. It's still a dangerous operation. But I don't want to go into the detail of how we're doing that.
Andrew from The Wall Street Journal.
ANDREW, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Thanks, Mr. President. Our reporting on the ground shows that Afghans with the proper paperwork are still having trouble getting to the airport. Some say they feel abandoned by the U.S. Some U.S. embassy staff that are Afghan haven't been able to make it into the airport as well. Why isn't the U.S. doing more to allow Afghans into the airport to ensure access to the airport? And are you still opposed to setting up an extended perimeter around the airport to help ease that access?
BIDEN: Number one, I think you're going to see they're going to get out.
Number two, we have made a number of changes, including extending the access around the airport and in the safe-zone. And we've done a number of things, again, I don't want to get into detail about.
But the fact is that more and more of the groups we urgently want to get out of Afghanistan, starting with American citizens and the folks who worked in the embassies and personnel with our allies, as well as the Afghans who helped them and worked in those embassies, as well as those who helped them on the battlefield as well, we are working diligently to make sure we've increased the ability to get them out. We've changed the gate operations and a whole range of things and that's why we've been able to significantly increase the number of people we're getting out.
ANDREW: And will the Taliban agree to an extension past August 31st? Have you discussed that with them?
BIDEN: We've discussed a lot with the Taliban. They've been cooperative in extending some of the perimeter. That remains to be seen whether we ask that question.
Ed, fire away.
ED: Thanks, Mr. President.
BIDEN: I don't want you jumping over that one.
ED: Just following up on Andrew's question, because the United States is now negotiating with the Taliban over airport access and such, do you now trust them?
And then a question on the public response. A new poll, out today shows Americans wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan, but they disapprove of the way you've handled it. The poll also found that based in part of what transpired in the last week, a majority of Americans, and forgive me, I'm just the messenger, no longer consider you to be competent, focused or effective at the job.
BIDEN: I haven't seen that poll.
ED: It's out there from CBS this morning. What would you say to those Americans who no longer believe that you are doing the job?
BIDEN: Look, I had a basic decision to make: I either withdraw America from a 20-year war that, depending on whose analyses you accept, cost us $150 million a day for 20 years or $300 million a day for 20 years; you know I carry this card with me every day and who, in fact, where we lost 2,448 Americans dead and 20,722 wounded, either increase the number of forces we keep there and keep that going or I end the war and I decided to end the war.
As I said the other day: the only reason we were in Afghanistan is this is the place from which bin Laden attacked the United States of America. Had this been in another Middle Eastern country where he could have easily had moved from, we would have never gone to Afghanistan.
So, the question is, when is the right time to leave? Where are our national interests? Where do they lie?
And the idea that we are in a situation where we cannot recognize that terrorism has metastasized around the world, and the need for us to focus in other parts of the world which create an even greater danger of an al-Qaeda-like operation beginning, it can't be ignored. And we are, as you well know, because you follow this, we are in a number of places where we're doing that without permanent basing American forces there.
So I think when this is over, the American people will have a clear understanding of what I did, why we did it. But, look, that's the job. My job is to make judgments. My job is to make judgments no one else can or will make. I made them.
[16:40:00]
I'm convinced I'm absolutely correct in not deciding to send more young women and men to war, for a war that, in fact, is no longer warranted.
ED: On the question of the Taliban though, do you trust them now? Do you have (inaudible)?
BIDEN: I don't trust anybody, including you. I love you, but, there's not a lot of people I trust.
Look, the Taliban has to make a fundamental decision: Is the Taliban going to attempt to be able to unite and provide for the wellbeing of the people of Afghanistan, which no one group has ever done since before dealing - for hundreds of years. And if it does, it's going to need everything from additional help, in terms of economic assistance, trades, and a whole range of things.
The Taliban has said, we'll see whether they mean it or not, they're seeking legitimacy. They're seeking legitimacy to determine whether or not they will be recognized by other countries.
They have told other countries, as well as us, they don't want us to move our diplomatic presence completely. So all of this is all just talk now. All just talk now.
And so, so far, the Taliban has not taken action against U.S. forces. So far, they have, by and large, followed through what they said, in terms of allowing Americans to pass through, and the like.
And I'm sure they don't control all of their forces. It's a ragtag force. And so, we'll see. We'll see whether or not what they say turns out to be true.
But the bottom line is this, folks: Look, at the end of the day, if we didn't leave Afghanistan now, when do we leave? Another 10 years? Another five years? Another year?
I'm not about to send your son or your daughter to fight in Afghanistan. I don't see where that is in our overwhelming interest.
And to talk about how our interests are going to be impacted: Let me tell you, you're sitting in Beijing or you're sitting in Moscow, are you happy we left? They'd love nothing better for us to continue to be bogged down there, totally occupied with what's going on.
So, the idea this is, I think, that history is going to record this was the logical, rational and right decision to make.
So thank you all so very much. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, do you support the sanctions against the Taliban? The British are calling for sanctions. They're going to discuss sanctions on Tuesday. Would you support sanctions against the Taliban under certain conditions? On Friday, you mentioned 'harsh conditions' if they misbehaved.
BIDEN: The answer is yes. It depends on the conduct. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what about the ISIS and the (inaudible) ...
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: All right. You saw President Biden there taking one last question before leaving the room there at the White House about whether he would consider sanctions against Taliban. He says depends on their conduct.
But just to review what we just heard a few moments ago, the President, I think, was delivering some breaking news to the American people. And that is that the U.S. is now extending the safe-zone around the airport in Kabul to provide better access to the airport there.
So that way, these Americans, these Afghan allies, vulnerable Afghans who have been scrambling to get to the airport can get to the Kabul airport. And so the President there making that clear just a few moments ago.
He also said that there are discussions about extending the August 31st deadline for the Kabul operation that is underway right now. He also made the point of saying at one point that the U.S. is conducting security screening of Afghan refugees who were evacuated to U.S. military bases overseas out of Afghanistan, before they come to the U.S. He made that point pretty clear at one point.
And he also, I think, made a point of saying that his heart aches for the images that you're seeing on screen right now. There are some critics who were saying perhaps the President hadn't been compassionate enough about the scenes that we're seeing unfold at the airport over the last week or so. The President seemed to address that by making that comment.
But let me get to our reporters and analysts on this. Back with me, Arlette Saenz, Kylie Atwood, Peter Bergen, Sam Kiley who is on the phone from the Kabul airport.
Sam, you're not pictured in the four box on screen, but you're a very important part of the equation here because you're on the phone in Afghanistan. Does the comment made by the President just a few moments ago that the U.S. is extending the safe-zone around the airport, does that match what you understand to be true happening in Kabul right now, Sam?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I've just spoken to some people who have traveled from the airport to downtown. Excuse me. [16:45:00]
The number of Taliban checkpoints pretty tense, but pretty well run and the level of chaos seems to have reduced.
Now, this may be because in addition to getting the Taliban to extend that area of security around the airport, I think largely in the face of potential threats from the so-called Islamic State, ISIS. They've also, this is the Americans, have closed all the gates access. There is no access to the airport at the moment, except through one British access point called Camp Baron, which is on the outskirts of the airport, where people are processed there and then moved into the airport once they've been cleared to fly out.
Now, that has been the case now for many hours as the process of trying to get people off the ground who are already inside the airport where the numbers have fluctuated, but up to about 18,000 or more, excuse me, more. So in this context, yes, it does sound accurate.
It's also clear that the Americans have been able to bring in people through what they're calling other routes, secret methods that they're using to bring people into the airport who've been trapped elsewhere. And I think that that is the military making good on the President's promise to make sure that every American and every person who they can be brought into the airport safely.
But this is going to be a very, very long process and the reports from the British camp were, at least, seven people were crushed yesterday, but the numbers are still in the 2,000 to 3,000, possibly more about 800 meters deep and about 30 meters wide. So very large crush of people, some of whom have been waiting for five days to get in.
ACOSTA: And let me go to Arlette Saenz over at the White House. Arlette, I thought that was a pretty significant address from the President and what he had to say was pretty significant. What stood out to you because it sounds as though he is really trying to make the case that the administration and the military force on the ground there that they are getting on top of what has been a very difficult situation.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the President really is trying to relay all of the administration's efforts to evacuate as many people as possible after we've seen a little bit of a bungled response after Kabul first fell just one week ago from today. Now, one thing that I thought was also notable in the President's remarks was that he said it would be hard, these images would have happened, no matter the timeframe for this draw down.
He said that it would have been hard and painful no matter when it started whenever it began, but many of his critics really feel that this administration has lacked the preparedness to deal with this as the Taliban quickly took hold of the country over the course of the past two weeks. But the President is arguing that the scenes would have always been heartbreaking that there was no way to prevent that.
But, of course, there are still more questions of what the administration could have done to prepare for this moment and whether it was enough. Now, there's going to be a lot of attention paid to the fact that he said that there are discussions about staying, remaining in the country past August 31st, that deadline that he had said just a few months ago is right now there are more American troops and that 2,500 that he had planned on withdrawing. We will see, he said that they're hopeful that the troops will not have to stay past August 31st but that they will continue to assess the situation.
Now, he did not indicate whether they have had any discussions with the Taliban about this. He said that they have been speaking with them when it comes to creating a bit more of a secure zone and safe routes for Americans and others to get to the airport. But we will see if there are any further points of contention on that.
Now, the President also, as you heard Sam talk about a bit, did not want to get into the details of how they are trying to get some of these Americans back to safety. He said that for security reasons, he could not outline some of the evacuation processes that are underway, but once again committed to ensuring that every American that wants to get out will be getting out of the country.
He provided a slight update in the number of people who have been evacuated out of the country over the course of the weekend. I believe it was about 3,000 more than had previously been disclosed. But right now, we still don't have a breakdown about how many Americans have been transported, how many of those SIV applicants have been transported or those other vulnerable Afghans that we are trying to get out of the country.
So we will see whether the administration will give a bit more of a detail of how many Americans remain there and the further processes that are being taken to get out. But right now, what this administration is really trying to show is that they have the situation under control, but, of course, many of the images that we're seeing, the thousands of people who are surrounding the airport raise real questions about the future of this operation and what more needs to be done.
[16:50:06]
ACOSTA: All right. Arlette, let me turn to Kylie because I know you're going to be anxious to talk to your sources and see whether or not the situation that the President presented there a few moments ago is going to match what we see on the ground. Obviously, in the coming days, in the coming hours, perhaps, we're going to see whether or not these routes that have been developed to get people to and from the airport, whether or not that is working out, whether bringing in these civilian airliners to help evacuate people in Kabul, whether that is helping the situation and then I think this very significant development that the President talked about that they've extended the safe-zone around the Kabul airport.
I know, Kylie, you're going to want to talk to your sources to find out whether or not that is alleviating the situation. Sam Kiley suggested that it might be, but I think we need to keep doing some digging to find out exactly if that is the reality, if things are getting better, that's going to be welcome news.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes. That's right. I mean, the President making it very clear that the initial plan that the administration had to evacuate thousands of people out of the country just wasn't cutting it. They had to make changes. They made those changes on the fly. They've really considered all the threats on the ground and now they are doing things a little bit differently.
As you guys have been discussing. He didn't want to give the operational details understandably given that there ISIS-K threats to the airport in Kabul right now to those Americans who are traveling to the airport. But with these changes underway, the question is, are they enough.
We had heard the administration over the last few days really doubling down on their initial commitment that they were only going to be focusing operations at the airport in Kabul. Well, now they're extending, the perimeter is extending, they are in talks with the Taliban about that. They are also going out and as we understand getting some of these Americans, and the President said bringing them to the airport, though he wouldn't be specific. But how are they able to do that? How quickly are they able to do that? Who is involved in those operations?
Those are all questions that we are going to be asking. I also think it's important that the President said, they've got a long way to go and things could still go wrong. An admission that this is messy right now. There are things that he sees that haven't gone extremely well and they're trying to make changes and you're going to have critics who say that they should have had a better plan out of the gates here, but they're trying to make those changes.
And I do think it's important that he made a point to thank all of the U.S. service members who have been involved in this, all of the U.S. diplomats who have been involved in this. They were not the decision makers. They don't make the policy. They implement the policy. They are the ones on the ground, who are working day in and every night to get these folks out of the country to get them to safety, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right, Kylie. And let me go to Peter Bergen. Peter, how did this grab you what the President said just a few moments ago? As Kylie was just saying, he did acknowledge that things could still go wrong. I mean, to narrow that to a point, obviously, that refers, I think, very acutely to the possibility of terrorist groups like ISIS-K and so on becoming a real problem for this evacuation operation especially if it's extended beyond August 31st.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the polling data that was referred to when the President was speaking to a reporter in the Q&A session shows that Americans disapprove of the way this has been handled, even if they approve of the general idea of us pulling out of Afghanistan.
I thought this was kind of a remix of some of Biden's old arguments on this. He said, we were bogged down in Afghanistan. Well, we had 2,500 troops there out of 1.3 million active duty troops. There hasn't been a casualty in a year and a half. And he said, our enemies are delighted that we were bogged down.
Well, I think America's enemies are pretty delighted about what they're seeing unfolding in Afghanistan right now. They may be no fans of the Taliban, but as you know, Jim, Bagram Air Base was one of the biggest American bases in the world. Afghanistan actually borders with China and Iran and many of the former Soviet republics and it was a perfect place to project American power.
So what I would disagree very profoundly with the President was that he always presents this as an either or, sending tons of young men and women into combat or leaving entirely. And I think there was always a sort of a modification of that, which is kind of where we were with a relatively small troop presence that was sustainable politically at home. There wasn't a great constituency in the United States to pull out, but there are lots of people who are pretty unhappy about both the execution and also, I think, just the policy itself.
So he's immovable on this point. He clearly feels very strongly that he is the commander-in-chief and he takes responsibility for this decision.
[16:55:03]
So I didn't really hear any sort of fresh arguments. I think there was some concessions that essentially saying we're really gone on top of the execution here. But in terms of the overall
argument, I mean, he's falling back on the same arguments he's made in the past.
ACOSTA: All right. Peter Bergen, thanks so much. And thanks to all of you for your reporting and analysis as we continue to follow President Biden's address and press conference here to the nation on the situation in Afghanistan. Many thanks to all of you.
Former President Donald Trump, we should mention, he used a rally in Alabama last night to slam President Biden's handling of Afghanistan while also bizarrely praising the Taliban. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All he had to do is leave the soldiers there until everything is out, our citizens, our weapons. Then you bomb the hell out of the bases. We have five bases. And you say bye-bye.
Taliban, great negotiators, tough fighters, great negotiators.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: In the meantime, top officials in Trump's administration are calling the former president out for making a deal with the Taliban in 2020. Here's Trump's former National Security Adviser, H. R. McMaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
H. R. MCMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Our Secretary of State signed a surrender agreement to the Taliban.
BARI WEISS, HOSNETLY WITH BARI WEISS: You're talking about Mike Pompeo?
MCMASTER: Yes.
This collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. I mean, the Taliban didn't defeat us, we defeated ourselves. And what's worse is we threw the Afghans under the bus on our way out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And of course, here are the images from 2020 of then- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the man now leading the Taliban, after the Trump administration helped release him from prison. And joining me now to talk about this and the President's address just a few moments ago, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California.
Congressman, this was more than just one President's words as you understand. What is your response to what President Biden just said a few moments ago? And doesn't former President Trump shoulder some of the blame in all of this? He cut this deal with the Taliban, of course, Biden embraced it and you and other Republicans up on Capitol Hill were applauding this pull out of Afghanistan months ago. The plans were months ago. What do you say now?
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA): Well, first of all, I would have left Bagram Air Base open. I never applauded the idea of closing a strategic base, any more than I would say that we should abandon the two air bases we have in South Korea. The fact is China is a greater threat today than it ever has been and just as we keep those two bases and 28,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines in South Korea, 2,500 was not an unreasonable amount to keep many of them overseeing the kind of aircraft that allowed the Afghan military to keep the enemy at bay.
But having said that, you're absolutely right, four presidents have all under their watch had a series of failed policies, policies about eradicating poppies, that they abandoned, policies of democracy, policies of eliminating corruption. We could go through the list of failures to make Afghanistan into a functional state.
But starting in January, President Biden, to his credit, has reversed every single policy of President Donald Trump at the border or anywhere else and this was no exception. To say that the pullout was Donald Trump's policy is to forget that under President Trump, every time the Taliban violated their agreement, they got bombed. They got attacked. That stopped.
The idea of pulling out and taking away the assets that would allow reprisals was not Donald Trump's, that was in fact this administration.
But right now, the real challenge is there's 37 million Afghans (inaudible) ... ACOSTA: Let me cut you off, Congressman, I'm sorry. But all along the
way, the Taliban, it's not exactly they became the girl scouts overnight. I mean, the Taliban was the Taliban and they were being invited to Camp David, Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State was cutting a peace deal with the Taliban late last year. This deal was still being honored by for President Donald Trump as he was leaving office. It's not like the Taliban suddenly became the girl scouts. We know who the Taliban are and it's not like they were going to change their stripes overnight.
And so wasn't President Biden essentially dealing with the same people that Donald Trump was dealing with when he was president?
ISSA: You don't get to have it both ways. You don't get to say that you're reversing every mistake of Trump and then picking this one is the one that you blame on Trump because you say you didn't reverse it. The fact is the agreement with the Taliban called for peaceful negotiation with the existing elected government.
[17:00:03]
